I was asked to contribute a quote for a press release that our friends at Freescale made a few days ago. When I read it I didn't fully appreciate just how tiny their little device is. Or at least I did once I looked at this photo; blink and you will miss it.
Looking at these chips and also some tiny ones from some of our other partners that were released last year it got me thinking about where they might end up. What sorts of products are so space-limited that they need a MCU that you could lose if you sneezed?
The first one that sprung to mind was a hearing aid, some of these are now hardly visible at all and must have little space left once the battery is included.
Second are those great little fitness gadgets that many of us buy and then justify to our families as "of course it was worth it, I'll do a lot more running now." Some now put MCUs into the soles of the running shoes or in tiny wireless sensors strapped to our bicycle wheels.
Third I got thinking about putting MCUs in smart cables that can adapt to different operating conditions, noise levels and lengths to get the best possible performance out of the link. Fitting an MCU into tiny connectors we have today will need truly tiny MCUs.
Batteries are also something that could very likely take advantage of a tiny embedded MCU, managing its own state and protecting itself from over charging.
With all of the speculation about new smart watches that tightly integrate with your smartphone or tablet there also feels to be a healthy demand for MCUs that could fit into a slim watch that we would all be happy to be seen wearing.
Another topic that is often speculated about is the world of sensors and that we can swallow, either to see what is going on from the inside or to deliver drugs to exactly the part of our digestive system for greatest effect. Tiny micros are going to be essential to make such things a reality.
To wrap up I saw today an idea of an MCU in your cutlery (HAPIfork), presumably to tell us when to stop eating because we have probably already had enough. Fanciful no doubt but shows just how much creativity there is and that there are going to be some whole new applications opened up by these tiny, intelligent devices.
Now where did I leave my 3D wireless glasses?
At EW 2013 this week, I expect to see quite a few more innovative ARM MCU based technologies at the show. Participate in the "Where's ARM" at EW Challenge by tweeting photos of ARM-based technologies with the hashtag #WheresARM to win cool prizes such as the Google Nexus 10 tablet, Samsung Galaxy Note, and Google Chromebook.